Gorby and Lenin

[ChrisD(RJ)]

- -It seems the trouble with SU agriculture wasn?t raw production, which was
- -probably enough to feed the country, but a huge 30% loss of harvest in
- -storage and transport, with the collapse of central planning ib 1991, it
- -would have worsened, even if they had a relatively good harvest.

				Alexandre Fenelon
--------------------------

One should also add that many of the economic crises, shortages, etc. in the
USSR were engineered for political reasons. In the late 80s, there were
attempts to sabotage Perestroika in order to make Gorbachev and other
incumbents unpopular. For instance, when Yury Luzhkov was running for Mayor
of Moscow back in 91 (?) against Popov, the city experienced a massive
shortage of cigarettes. When Luzhkov was elected, cigarettes appeared on the
streets as if by magic the very next day.

Also, many shortages were caused by people going out and stockpiling
instances of a given item, leading to empty stores in the interrum until the
next shipment.

Chris Doss
The Russia Journal